đ„ The NBA scoring debate just got HEATED! Analysts go all-in on one of the most polarizing questions in the game: Who is the BEST scorer in the NBA right now?
Is it Kevin Durant, the smoothest offensive weapon in the league? Stephen Curry, the greatest shooter of all time? Luka Doncic, a walking triple-double and scoring machine? Or maybe Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker, or even Shai Gilgeous-Alexander?
From three-point range to iso moves to pure shot creation, the debate covers all aspects of offensive dominance in the modern NBA.
Keyword Tags (Inside Description): best scorer NBA 2025, Kevin Durant offense, Steph Curry scoring, Luka Doncic stats, NBA elite scorers, top NBA scorer today, First Take NBA argument, NBA best offensive player, modern NBA scoring kings, NBA player rankings
đ·ïž Keyword Tags (Outside Description â Upload Tags) best scorer NBA 2025, Kevin Durant offense, Steph Curry scoring, Luka Doncic stats, NBA elite scorers, top NBA scorer today, First Take NBA argument, NBA best offensive player, modern NBA scoring kings, NBA player rankings, NBA hot takes
00:00KD ranks 8th, currently in the NBA's all-time scoring list with over 30,000 points.
00:05He's the only active player in the top 10 besides LeBron, who's first on that list, over 42,000 points.
00:11Then you've got James Harden, ranked 11th, Russell Westbrook at 20th, and then Stephen Curry at 24.
00:17Tim, who is the better scorer in the NBA today?
00:21I'm giving you four options here.
00:22KD, LeBron, James Harden, or Stephen Curry?
00:26I mean, this answer's easy.
00:27To me, Kevin Durant is the greatest scorer in the history of the sport, not just now,
00:31and he's definitely the greatest scorer of those four guys today.
00:34He's a 7-foot-tall player who plays like a guard, who can shoot from 30 feet.
00:39He's one of the most, if not the most, efficient jump shooter in the history of the league.
00:43He's a metronomic 50-40 guy over the course of his career.
00:47And when you combine his size, I mean, you see the jump shot here.
00:50There's been nobody ever that we've seen can have the combination of skills and ability that Kevin Durant has.
00:56I mean, the only thing you could arguably question him over the course of his career is that he didn't shoot enough,
01:01because he's been a guy that's been very content to be somewhere in the, like, high 20s,
01:05averaging, topping up around 30 in his career.
01:07If he wanted to have a Kobe Bryant 2005 season and score 35, 36 points, he could easily do that.
01:13But he's never really pushed himself to be that kind of player.
01:15He'd rather operate within the offense and get himself 28 points on 50-40 shooting.
01:20It's why, to your point before, Courtney, he is going to be such a great fit in Houston,
01:23because he's replacing Jalen Green, who is a wildly inefficient, not very good lead scorer.
01:28And now they replace him with Kevin Durant.
01:30It's a big part of why the Rockets are going to be a team that is truly a contender this year in the Western Conference.
01:34And, yeah, I think KD is not only the best of those four scorers right now,
01:37I truly think he's the greatest scorer from his combination of skills that we've ever seen in the sport of basketball.
01:42Kevin?
01:43I'm not going to be a magic home run go off menu with Paolo Bencaro, just to cut that off.
01:47Well, he wasn't on the list anyway.
01:49I could have done it.
01:49I could have forced him.
01:50He would have not have been qualified.
01:51I'm going KD here.
01:52He's getting better at some things, okay?
01:54Last year was his third highest effective field goal percentage, second best three-point percentage of his career.
02:00Everything Tim said is correct, which is a great rebound because the Miles Turner point was so terrible on the last segment.
02:06But this, he's just, again, in some cases getting better.
02:10He's going to be part of a championship contender, which I'm not sure you can say for a lot of these guys.
02:15He's going to be at the forefront of the sport next year, even at his advanced age.
02:18I love him.
02:19All right.
02:19A few days ago, I did David's A-list.
02:21It was the best list I think we've ever had on First Take history.
02:23Yeah.
02:23And I had Kevin Durant as the second best scorer of all time, right?
02:28The accolades, the years, and all that.
02:30But for this year, one year, Wardell, Stephen Curry.
02:34What school did he go to at Davidson College?
02:36Wardell, Stephen Curry is the best scorer that we have right now.
02:39Look at the defense that he has up against on a night-to-night basis.
02:42They are double-teaming this dude at half court every time he touches the ball, and yet and still, he is a destroyer of defenses.
02:50He went up there against that Houston Rockets team, which won the best defenses in the league, which was equipped specifically to stop this dude.
02:58And we're trying to double-team him at every minute of that game with a hobbled Jimmy Butler, and he broke their spirit by the end of that series.
03:06He can do that.
03:07He does that with every team.
03:08The most confounding player to guard in the league since Shaquille O'Neal is Stephen Curry for what he does.
03:15When we talk about explosiveness and scoring, he had two 50-point games this season.
03:20Kevin Durant hasn't had a 50-point game since 2022.
03:22When you talk about a guy who can go off, who in one quarter of scoring can rip out a team's heart, it's Stephen Curry.
03:28That is the reason that defenses cannot figure him out, that everybody is in a panic whenever he's anywhere near crossing half court.
03:36That is why you guard the guy 50, 45 feet away from the basket.
03:40I have seen more people, when they have their defenses keyed in on Kevin Durant, give him a hard time than they have, giving Steph Curry and his Warriors team around him,
03:48because he also creates openings for other people just by being on the court.
03:53All the time, we can talk Kevin Durant, because again, my list is perfect.
03:56But this year, it's Stephen Curry.
03:58Davidson Homer?
04:00I mean, obviously.
04:01We've been knowing this since we're around the morning.
04:03We've got big homers all across the board here.
04:05Steph Winston-Davidson?
04:06I didn't read it.
04:06To your point, though, what happens in Houston to get him to the level where you'd be willing to put him over Stephen Curry?
04:13Do you think there is something about the makeup of that roster that will help him get back to, I guess, where he was two on your list yesterday?
04:20He was two.
04:21How would he finish two for this year?
04:23Well, I think that Kevin Durant will just have to go against some of these defenses that we've seen.
04:27Like, I want to see a series where you have the Rockets and OKC, and that incredible defense where they have dudes who can lock up pretty much anybody.
04:37They gave Anthony Edwards trouble.
04:38They gave Jokic probably the worst series he's had in a long time, even though he put up big numbers.
04:43Kevin Durant has to go out there and be the best scorer against the OKC team.
04:46He has to dominate in the playoffs this year and get them to a championship.
04:50Because I have seen Stephen Curry do that with the Warriors team that did not have a lot of offensive weapons, where it was Steph Curry.
04:57Jordan Poole was number two.
04:59It was Wiggins was there, too.
05:00And he went into Boston in game four and ripped out that team's heart and put up monster numbers and maybe the best road performance we've seen in Boston in the finals.
05:09Think about the history of Boston.
05:11Kevin Durant, to do that in the playoffs with the team equipped right now to make a run, that's where we make the argument.
05:16And to what you were saying, Tim, I mean, he's got to take more shots this year.
05:19Well, I don't know if he has to take more shots.
05:21He just has to beat Kevin Durant.
05:22I mean, this is a guy who his scoring record, again, is unparalleled.
05:26I mean, David Haslam is the second greatest scorer of all time behind Michael Jordan, but not the best scorer now.
05:30It's a little hard to square.
05:31Yeah, the math is not really math.
05:31Well, no, no.
05:32If you think about the â we're talking about the overall, right, the overall years that he's put in.
05:38Yes, when you put the accolades and the numbers, raw numbers and all that stuff, yes, you could put him above Stephen Curry in terms of scoring.
05:43But this year, one year, if you gave me one dude to say I need you to carry a team offensively and get me to the next level, I'm putting Stephen Curry on that roster.
